M&M’S purpose is to create a world where everyone belongs, through the power of fun. But the brand had been embroiled in conversations that actually divided people, rather than bring them together. The 2024 Super Bowl was an opportunity to recenter the cultural conversation back to belonging.

From a business perspective, M&M’S also needed to increase awareness within the peanut butter confectionary category. Peanut butter is the fastest growing & largest flavor partition in the chocolate category, but despite being around since the 90s, Peanut Butter M&M’S have suffered from low awareness, and competition essentially dominated the category.

So we created the Almost Champions Ring of Comfort: a handcrafted ring specifically designed for the Super Bowl LOSERS, featuring actual diamonds made from America’s favorite comfort food: M&M’s peanut butter.

Year-over-year, the Super Bowl consistently boasts an audience of over ~110M viewers.

But the majority aren’t fans of the teams playing in the Super Bowl. Since there are 32 National Football League teams and only one winning team, that means 31 other teams’ fans are not winners at the Super Bowl.

Peanut Butter M&M’S wanted to provide comfort to Super Bowl losing teams & fans, but we needed a culturally splashy way to deliver that story.

In our research on America’s love for the product, it was uncovered that it’s possible to make real diamonds out of peanut butter.

To create belonging for the losers while championing the power of Peanut Butter M&M’S to bring comfort, M&M’S created the Almost Champions’ Ring of Comfort, a first-of-its-kind 14k gold ring for LOSERS of the Super Bowl, featuring diamonds made from M&M’S Peanut Butter.

Our Almost Champions Ring of Comfort was a symbol of M&M’S commitment to delivering belonging, while raising awareness of the Peanut Butter M&M’S product & its comforting benefits.

We launched with a range of content – designed for different audiences to cater messaging to what they’d care about most.

Aside from :15 teasers that explained how the brand actually made diamonds out of M&M’S peanut butter, we also launched a movie-trailer spoof that teased the idea as entertainment.

A flashy, over-the-top ring hype video, based on videos made for actual Super Bowl rings, made waves with sports fans while showcasing the humorous details on our custom ring.

And celebrity stars in the campaign helped expand our earned reach – with x3 famous NFL “Almost Champions” promoting our ring via interviews & in-person events, and with A-list actress Scarlett Johansson, who earned buzz with pop culture & celebrity coverage.

Conferring with scientists & diamond experts, we turned M&M’S peanut butter into diamonds by heating peanut butter to 3,000 degrees centigrade, purifying it into a carbon disk, and compressing it at 800 psi.

With celebrity jeweler Ben Baller, we designed a Super Bowl ring with a twist. Instead of celebrating champions, our ring was a tribute to LOSERS – with design elements like a “2>1” symbol, plus an unlucky three-leaf clover. The ring even featured a hidden compartment where you could store a single Peanut Butter M&M.

Along with rubies and 14K gold, the stunning Ring of Comfort boasts over 12.7 carats and the very first-ever diamonds made of M&M’s peanut butter.

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, we launched the program in PR and on organic social–immediately securing fan admiration for the ring and curiosity at what the campaign-to-come would reveal.

The Ring of Comfort was a smashing success, picking up 11 billion Earned Media Impressions globally, with a 99% Positive/Neutral Earned Media Sentiment. It also sparked 154% increase in Peanut Butter M&M’S sales on mms.com alone. Overall, we saw an increase of nearly 18% in sales across Jan-Feb and over 20% in Feb alone. Furthermore, Peanut Butter Minis sales shot up 42.6%.

M&M’S also came in 2nd (53.5%) when viewers were asked “which products they’d be open to purchasing” (AdAge).

Our Super Bowl ad was in multiple ‘Best Super Bowl commercial’ round-ups, including top-tier outlets Narcity & Sportsnet, and several “Best Ads” lists, including ABC’s GMA, The Wrap, The Hill, Mashed and Vogue – plus Top 10 Ad mentions in The Daily Meal, Awful Announcing and The Athletic.

Best of all, sports fans and M&M’S fans alike clamored to get their hands on this ring.